A blower filter respirator system has at least one filter for filtering the ambient air as well as a face part, via which the filtered air is fed to the user. Such a face part is frequently also called headpiece for a blower filter respirator system. Blower filter respirator systems are used in many situations and fields of use in everyday life as well as in industrial environments.
The fields of use include, for example, the production and processing of metals (e.g., iron and steel industry), metalworking (e.g., welding, soldering), the pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, fields of application in coating technology or paint and varnish technology, the oil and gas industry, services in the areas of construction, reconstruction, disposal or cleaning up (e.g., cleaning up of asbestos) or the handling of hazardous materials, as well as clinical/medical fields of use, for example, applications for the protection of the medical staff from pathogens in case of epidemics and pandemics. Depending on the nature of the conditions of use, the face part may be a face mask, a breathing hood, a visor mask, a helmet, a full face mask or a half mask. The blower filter device and the face part are connected via an air feed line, so that the amount of air delivered by the blower filter device can be fed and sent to the user.
Blower filter respirator systems, which are also called “PAPR” (Powered Air Purifying Respirator) systems, are known, for example, from DE 689 09 707 T2, DE 100 21 581 B4, EP 08 14 872 B1 and EP 0 413 555 A1.
It is important for the action of a blower filter respirator system for protecting the user from harmful gases or particles that there is an overpressure in the face part against the ambient air. This ensures that no air can enter the face part from the surrounding area. It is described in the state of the art, for example, in EP 0 814 872 B1, how it is possible by means of a pressure sensor, which is arranged in the face mask, to monitor whether an overpressure is present in the face mask relative to the area in which the mask is used. The inclusion of the pressure enables the management of the blower filter device in a possible technical embodiment variant to monitor the overpressure in the mask with a corresponding possibility of alarming for the control of the blower filter respirator system when the pressure drops. The drawback of this technical embodiment variant is the necessity of a data link between the blower filter device and the pressure sensor in the mask. Such a data link, be it wired or wireless via radio transmission or optical transmission, is, in principle, prone to disturbances during the use of the blower filter device (cable rupture, contact problems on plug-type connections, disturbances in radio transmission) and is thus problematic.
Another technical embodiment variant of detecting a pressure in the face mask is the arrangement of a pressure-measuring line from the face mask to the blower filter device. A pressure sensor, which can detect the pressure in the face mask by measurement by means of the pressure-measuring line, is arranged in the blower filter device. This embodiment variant also has the drawback that the pressure-measuring line is susceptible to disturbances, e.g., damage to the pressure-measuring line from the outside during use. Arranging the pressure-measuring line in the air feed line (“tube-in-tube”), often designed as a tube from the blower filter device to the face mask, reduces the susceptibility to disturbances from the outside, but it requires a special and complicated and therefore expensive design of the air feed line or of the tube.